


Art in a Snap

by AvelHart



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 23:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18082697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvelHart/pseuds/AvelHart
Summary: Yusuke tackles photography for an application, and who else to nominate as his unfortunate victim than Ren?





	Art in a Snap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EndovaElixabete](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndovaElixabete/gifts).



> Nobody's gonna understand the "Yusuke hates photography" headcanon except us (unless they share the same headcanon lol). I am legit uploading this an hour and twenty minutes before midnight, blame my inability to come up with a good title and changing my idea midway, yes, that happened.
> 
> Happy birthday, [EndovaElixabete](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndovaElixabete/pseuds/EndovaElixabete)! I'm sorry if this isn't what you were expecting OTL. But know that you've become a very important friend to me, and I really enjoy talking about Shukita with you, haha. Persona 5 in general, but. Shukita.
> 
> I hope you had a wonderful birthday and even more!

**0\. Request**

**YUSUKE [15:48].** Do you have time? I am in need of help. It is quite urgent, so I would appreciate if you arrived at your earliest convenience.

 **REN [15:53].** What is it?

 **YUSUKE [15:58].** I’ll be at Leblanc shortly.

* * *

 

The words ‘urgent’ and ‘help’ should never be strung so close together. Topped with Yusuke’s lack of response, Ren could only hang around by the booths. Sojiro doesn’t mind when his friends stayed late so long as they behaved themselves, and “don’t try lying to me, these shelves have eyes”. Had this been said a month back, he would’ve thought it some figure of speech. But Futaba was quite proud of all the wiretapping she set up within in the walls of Leblanc.

Not that there was any _need_ to worry; he and Yusuke weren’t that intimate.

And yet, it is so easy to tell when something is out of the ordinary for Yusuke. He could write it off as ‘weirdness’ or just doing something ‘Yusuke’. Ren knew Yusuke long enough that he would never be caught dead with any electronics on hand aside from his phone. Compared to his other friends, he hardly typed away during the lulls of their Phantom Thief or on the rare outing.

Three things wrong with this image:

One, Yusuke’s bag is not the one he lugged around with him to Kosei, Leblanc, and… well, everywhere. It is much smaller, hanging at his hip rather than slung over his shoulder.

Two, He is disheveled from hastily combed dark blue hair to his uniform that bends into creases from a careless oversight while ironing.

(did Yusuke iron?)

Three, The thing he carries in his hand is not a traditional sketchpad nor is it anything remotely related to traditional art. It is the latest brand of Nikon he had once spotted on the shelves in Akihibara. He bought it himself for a gift that he wound up giving to one Ohya Ichiko (granted the one _he_ bought had been used and sold for a semi-cheap 4000 yen…). This one, however, is more polished, as if Yusuke pulled it from a very image online himself.

But the thing was Yusuke had such a negative opinion of photography. What on earth changed? He blinks at him, eyes sliding to the camera. “Has hell frozen over?”

“Do not get the wrong idea,” Yusuke says sternly as he slides into one of the booths, popping open the compartment on the camera. He fishes out a small case from his pocket, slips the SD card into its proper space. “This is simply for my portfolio – nothing more.”

Ren can only take him fumbling with the card before he reaches across the table. “A portfolio?” he echoes, handing it back.

“Yes,” Yusuke confirms. “I suppose I should explain: I need a complete and diverse portfolio for my application to a scholarship. It seems like traditional art is not enough. They want to see if their contestants can successfully compile a variety of drawings and photos. While I am not concerned for the digital aspect, I am worried for _this_.”

Ren does not miss the narrowed look Yusuke side-eyes at the innocent camera.

“You are more than aware of my opinion on photography. It is a form of art I am reluctant to accept,” Yusuke continues. “Over the years, photos have been reduced from the capturing of a scene in a precise moment to being uploaded on apps only to be implemented with bizarre filters. Furthermore, there is not much respect for the quality of the photo either. Something taken with an advanced camera will always look more pleasing to the eye, but the most common way of ‘photography’ is through the inexperienced lens of a phone. I believe somewhere along the way, ‘photography’ lost its meaning and became a mockery of what it once was…”

He’s given barely any opening when Yusuke begins his tangents. The most he does is dip his head in understanding, concern growing within him for both Yusuke and the eventual demise of his camera. Prettied up it may be, it wouldn’t be that way for long if Yusuke’s past with electronics was anything to go by.

Who used a laptop as a doorstopper once the battery started leaking?

“...Therefore, I need your help once again.”

There is the matter of the Palace on top of random Mementos missions... But he isn’t declining Yusuke’s request either. If there was away to help, he’d be more than willing to volunteer.

Besides, it’d be interesting to see what Yusuke would be taking pictures of...

“Alright,” he finds himself saying. “What can I do?”

It is the right thing to say. Yusuke’s smile is genuine, and his voice is lighter when he speaks. “There are a list of prompts the portfolio requires for submission. While the easiest would be scenery, I find myself struggling with the others. It seems I will need a human subject to fill out the rest,” the camera flicks to life, and a picture of the application flares to life. The quality is skewered by the lines of a computer screen. Ideally, it would have been clearer had Yusuke taken a screencap with the computer of the phone, but... “The word ‘surprise’ could be an image we see that evokes shock. But it could also be the look on one’s face when they are least expecting something. The second is more difficult. Tell me: When you hear the word ‘element,’ what comes to mind?”

Elements could be narrowed down into fire, earth, water, and air. He feels his eyebrows knit together, as if staring at the poor camera would bestow him the answer Yusuke wanted. Would they line up a candle, a pile of dirt, a glass of water, and... a makeshift fan, maybe? It seemed too simple, and the extent of his imagination was that of a child.

“I see,” Yusuke sighs. “Well, let’s put it aside. I figure with surprise I could try to take a picture of you the moment astonishment springs to your face.”

Worry prickles at him. “What are you planning?”

“At ease. I assure you the final will be worthwhile. Though I am asking for a generous amount of your time until I finish the photography section of the portfolio.”

That does little to ease his nerves.

“Oh.”

Ren hums.

“I seem to have deleted the picture I took of Kosei’s courtyard.”

* * *

**1\. Surprise**

He’s not sure why Morgana is generous to let him sleep in a few hours later, but Ren doesn’t argue. Between the Metaverse, school, and everything in between, he finds his body drawing to a halt, wanting to shut down for a good 8 hours of sleep. Lately he passes out before his head has time to meet the pillow, and he argues less when Morgana urges him to go to bed.

There’s a weight at the edge, and his hand reaches blindly for Morgana, expecting to feel soft fur beneath his fingertips.

Morgana was not cold or metal. Or rounded. His index finger snags on the smooth surface of glass.

Ren’s eyes open slowly, and he rolls over—

“Good morning.”

His mouth slacks open just slightly. “Yusu—”

The flash of the lens sends stars slashing into his vision, and he cringes with a groan, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand (“You can’t do that!” Morgana says from... somewhere.) (“Sorry.”). He waits for the dark blotches to stop winking back at him before he manages to form coherent words. “Yusuke,” he tries again. “What the hell?” _Why are you in my room?_

“Maybe I should have waited for you downstairs,” Yusuke says, failing to answer Ren’s question. His finger hovers over a button on the camera before he turns it. “You blinked.”

And the last thing Ren wants to wake up to is someone shoving a terrible picture of himself under his nose. From what he glimpses, he looks both surprised and exhausted, mouth having formed around the first syllable of Yusuke’s name. He gave it this much: It did a marvelous job of capturing his current feelings. Grumbling, he nudges the camera away gently.

“You’re here early,” he says instead, running a hand down his face. “What time is it?”

“It’s noon,” Morgana leaps onto his bed, tail twitching just so as he watches Ren with careful eyes. “Hurry up and get ready. We still gotta hold the meeting today!” and then his gaze averts to Yusuke. “You too. Give him some space, alright?”

Yusuke’s response loses its way to Ren’s ears, and when he looks next, they’re already descending the stairs.

Sojiro’s voice is smothered by the floorboards of his room. He hears Yusuke again before deciding it was time he got ready. The clothes he donned from yesterday are tossed in the corner and he springs up out of bed, tugging them on hastily despite the rush of vertigo.

Pulling his phone out of the wall, he sends a quick text to the group chat ( **REN [12:37].** Let’s meet at the hideout today). Hopefully the potential trip to Mementos would help Yusuke calm down.

He’s greeted by another flash that lights up the corner of Leblanc’s diner. Morgan sputters something incoherent, Sojiro (“What’re you doing?”) chimes in, and Yusuke apologizes for a second time that morning. The shock that flitted through Ren ran its course the minute the flash went off. Whatever Yusuke hoped to capture with his lens was, undoubtedly, not what he was looking for.

“I am not used to using a professional camera,” Yusuke admits, the soft blipping noise emitting with each tap of his fingers against the buttons.

Sojiro slides a cup of coffee to Ren. It warms his palms, the scent curling into his nose and nudging him closer and closer to wakening. He brings it to his lips, the absent taste of the ceramic touching his tongue before the scalding bitterness of the coffee. “You’re finally awake,” Sojiro’s voice is gruff. “So I hear you’re helping him with his art?”

Yusuke’s face crinkles at the implication. “It’s for a scholarship,” he says instead. “for Kosei.”

And that’s all he says.

Ren cringes as he consumes a sip larger than he was anticipating. He hears the camera again. At this point, Ren’s sure Yusuke’s taken at least several high-quality pictures of Leblanc’s floor.

He feels his phone vibrate in his pocket.

 **RYUJI [12:55].** hell yeah! took ‘effin long enough!

* * *

**2\. Element**

Mementos is a labyrinth littered with the song of the unknown rolling throughout the tunnels that serves as its veins. There’s a sense of feeling free as Joker flips from one Persona to the next, not having to double think his actions, put on a show for the eyes that won’t judge him.

The Shadows crawl and cower from the Hold Up, some as cheap as their lousy appearances, forking over a pathetic 200 yen before retreating to their namesakes. But even still, 200 was better than the Shadow gaining a burst of energy to fight back, calling forth a horde of its allies.

This one is persistent, refusing to bite the bullet of handing over more money. Girimehkala’s Deathbound skills calls forth a pit of black and equally dark violet that snares its enemies in a grip that practically whips their energy from them in a wild flailing of ghostly hands.

But they’ve fought this enemy once before. Despite the burning in his lungs, he takes the baton pass from Skull, a smirk tugging at his lips the instant their hands clap together. Energy blooms within him, his mask swallowed by nonfatal blue flames that licked along its white surface, burning away into invisible ashes. He feels the Persona tug away from him, chains singing in his ears as it comes to life. Bright light bursts from Horus, and Joker _feels_ its eagerness to strike down their enemy for daring to think it could defeat them.

 _Kougaon_.

The spell springs to their synced minds, and shafts of light suspend around the Shadow’s head before spearing through Girimehkala’s tough body, tearing from one shoulder to another, from its forearm to its bulging stomach. It lets out one final shriek as it explodes in a decrescendo of black dust.

“As expected of you, Joker!” Mona exclaims.

“There’s nothing to fear with you guiding us,” Noir chimes in.

Joker chuckles lightly at their praise, unable to shrug the leftover modesty left from Ren. Mona’s engine purrs to life and they continue down the tracks, maneuvering around the shadows that scurry in blind panic. And as the stairs come into view, Fox’s voice rings from the back seat.

“That’s it...! I have discovered an idea for ‘element’!”

Queen is the first to respond, turning to look back at him over her shoulder. “Huh? What’re you—? Is that a camera?”

Joker makes the mistake of looking into the rearview mirror for confirmation, trepidation freezing his veins.

“Wait, Inari, I haven’t adjusted the flash—”

A yowl blares from Mona’s speakers as Joker flinches sharply into the wall of the platform.

From that day forth, cameras were banned from Mementos trips.

* * *

**3\. Beauty**

The lights along the Odaiba bridge set the water on fire in multicolored hues. They’re sitting on the bench overlooking the river, camera snug comfortably in its bag, sitting between them. Yusuke hasn’t dared taken it out, not that Ren would mind so long as he wasn’t caught in his reticle. A day had passed since the Mementos incident

 **YUSUKE [14:14].** Are you available tonight? I’d like to apologize for yesterday.

 **REN [14:18].** It’s alright, Yusuke.

 **YUSUKE [14:20].** There’s something I wish to discuss.

and Ren would be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid of whatever _horrendous_ pictures Yusuke snapped of him. And Leblanc’s floor. And the shock etched into everyone’s face as Joker steered Mona off the tracks. Though it was entertaining to see Oracle snatch the camera out of Fox’s hands.

“I don’t believe this is the right scholarship to apply for.” Ren looks at him in astonishment, but Yusuke continues. “I’m struggling to separate photography from art, and the keywords they are looking for are not easy to extract from in real life as they are from my mind.”

Silence drips between them save for the quiet murmurings of the water rolling over itself, the sound of tires rumbling against gravel as cars race across the bridge.

“As reluctant as I am to admit it, photography _is_ an art,” he presses his lips against his steepled fingers, elbows resting on his knees. “Capturing something in the moment it occurred can be just as the same as drawing a landscape before the sun sets. Like painting, there is timing within photography as well.”

He’s stalling, Ren notices. There is something buried beneath Yusuke’s words, and he was giving Ren the option to unearth it. “Why did you need the scholarship?”

And he hesitates. “It’s... The current scholarship I have covers both room and board. Though I fear as I reach closer to my senior year, money will slowly become a larger issue than it already is. I struggle with saving funds, and between my classes, I have little time for the necessary hours required for the part time jobs in Shibuya. Without the second scholarship, I have garnered this unreasonable fear that I will be removed from the dorms.”

Ren tilts his head to the side, just slightly. “This is about money?”

Yusuke says nothing.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he demands. Ren wonders if it were possible to extract money from a _scholarship_. How else was Yusuke gathering small handfuls of funds without a job?

“I felt it necessary to work for it,” Yusuke admits. “It would be wrong to take money without having a form of repayment.”

“But you are working for it. The money isn’t just for Phantom Thief business. If you’re worried that Kosei is going to kick you out, then tell me how much you need to get through the next two years.”

It’s odd not having Morgana squirming around in his bag, squeezing through the small parting of the zipper. But he was still recovering from headbutting concrete, undoubtedly bitter from Yusuke’s burst of inspiration in Mementos.

He doesn’t need Morgana to talk to Yusuke though.

“I am unable of predicting that far ahead,” Yusuke admits with a mirthless, one-note laugh. “I appreciate your kindness, Ren. So, allow me to apologize again for dragging you on another adventure of mine.”

An adventure that lasted two days, but Ren shakes his head. “Don’t,” he says. “I like hanging out with you.”

Ren can’t figure out why Yusuke seems so... surprised. He truly thought so little of himself. “You... do?”

“Just, let’s leave the camera at home next time,” Ren chuckles lightly, smile tugging at his lips when Yusuke shares a laugh as well. “You never told me how you got it.”

“Oh,” and he roots in the bag, pulling out the Nikon. There’s a white scratch in the corner from where it clattered to the floor of the Mona bus. “I purchased it in Akihabara’s electronic store. It was around 25000 yen, but money well spent, even if I am to never dabble in photography again.”

Ren practically _feels_ his wallet cringe.

“The application listed a variety of cameras, but the Nikon looked the most organized.” Ren watches quietly as Yusuke scrolls through the film, deleting the high-quality floor photos. “I’m still not used to technology. Perhaps you would make better use of it.”

Green and yellow lights spew from the base of the bridge’s feet, mingling with the current mosaic of colors bleeding onto the surface of the water. Ren is no expert in art, but he finds the sight rather breathtaking. Though he did not share Yusuke’s opinion of photography, he finds himself wanting to see a painting of the bridge caught during the night.

He’s sure there’s at least over a million worth of yen in the savings. The more they worked as Phantom Thieves, the more their pockets would stay full. And if it would alleviate Yusuke’s stress, he wouldn’t mind giving him a wad of thousands or two. Their friends wouldn’t mind either.

“Do you remember the final prompt?” he finds himself asking, as Yusuke rises from his seat, making way to the railing. He’s formed a frame with his fingers by the time Ren stands adjacent to him.

Yusuke lowers his hands. “It was as broad as the rest of them,” he admits,” he slides his gaze to Ren. “But now that I’m here, I believe I’ve found it.”

Ren allows himself to smile softly. “Take a picture; it lasts longer.”

“Of course.”

Yusuke retreats to the bench.

The sound of the shutter snaps once. Twice, and he prepares to move—

“No. Stay where you are,” Yusuke’s voice cuts through him. “You are part of this as well.”

And despite the cold air, Ren can’t explain the heat that wells in his chest.

* * *

**+3**

He’s compiled at least three photos per prompts. Yusuke does not know how to operate those Photoshop programs, but he does what he can on the school computers. He compiles the portfolio with a careful eye, makes sure there are no lens flares or tilted images.

Yusuke substitutes the images from the Metaverse, replacing them with pictures of both Ren and Sojiro in Leblanc serving customers.

But as for beauty? He can only bring himself to send one in.

He chances another look at the picture of Ren by Odaiba bridge, the way the light caressed his face, highlighted his dark hair, the content look overtaking his normally stoic expression. His thumb brushes Ren’s cheek before he switches the camera to OFF,

Maybe, he decides. he misjudged photography.

Just a little.


End file.
